in the images. men and women competed in pairs and for individual titles. now, pole dancing, it is a sport that is growing despite its strip club origins. the international pole sports federation hopeful it will be introduced as a sport at the next olympic games. "cnn newsroom" continues with brooke baldwin. hey, brooke. >> hey, suzanne. good to see you. i'm brooke baldwin live from new york. all eyes on capitol hill as we get word of a major development here and talks over the so-called fiscal cliff. we'll have that in a moment. plus, ta-da, get your tickets out. tonight, the powerball jackpot hitting a record and this hour president obama getting ready to hold his first cabinet meeting since being re-elected. and keep in mind, some members of that cabinet, they will not be there for long. but first, the fiscal cliff battle here that landed in your lap today. president obama, even wants you to tweet about it. the president went full court

press asking americans to pressure congress to keep middle class tax cuts for families earning $250,000 or less. >> it is too important for washington to screw this up. now is the time for us to work on what we all agree to, which is let's keep middle class taxes low. tweet, use the hashag my2k or e-mail, post it on a member of congress' facebook wall, do what it takes to communicate a sense of urgency. i'll sign this bill as soon as congress sends it my way. i got to repeat, i've got a pen. i'm ready to sign it. so -- >> the president wants republicans to first agree to keep the middle class tax cuts, and then he wants to move on and tackle the rest of the fiscal cliff problems. do not count on groundswell of republican support. in fact, one republican, congressman tom cob, proposed a

similar idea and conservative republicans shot him down. we'll get to that here in a moment. quite a moment today. also president obama is meeting today with 14 key ceos to try to get their support for keeping those middle class tax cuts. the ceos are from huge, huge companies here. macy's, home depot, pfizer, comcast, marriott, at&t. you see the signs here, just to name a few. on the republican side, house speaker john boehner says the gop has done its part and now it is time for the democrats to show their cards on spending cuts. >> we all know that we have had this spending crisis coming at us like a freight train. and it has to be dealt with. and in order to try to come to an agreement, republicans are willing to put revenue on the table, but it is time for the president and democrats to get serious about the spending problem that our country has. >> president obama and speaker boehner's last face to face

meeting on the fiscal cliff was 12 days ago. though apparently they did talk over the phone this weekend. if the president and congress do not cut a deal, let me repeat myself here, massive tax hikes and spending cuts automatically kick in the first of next year. joining me now from washington is representative marcia blackbird, a house republican, represents the seventh district of tennessee which covers some of the suburb s between nashvile and memphis. nice to see you. thanks for coming on today. >> good to see you, yes. good to be with you, thank you. >> there was some pretty big news out of a meeting with house republicans today. your colleague, tom cole of oklahoma, now is proposing that you go ahead and do essentially what the president has been asking for, allow taxes to rise on the wealthy, come january 1st. so everyone else, the 98%, their taxes would remain the same. let me just play this sound. congressman tom cole speaking earlier today.

>> in my view, we all agree that we're not going to raise taxes on people that make less than $250,000. we should just take them out of this discussion right now. we're not going to raise taxes on those people. and i think we ought to go ahead and make that abundantly clear to everybody. and take them out of the negotiation. recognize we don't throw -- let's get the best deal we possibly can from the american taxpayer. part of that is making sure people that make less than $250,000 don't face a tax increase. >> so, congressman cole basically saying to, you know, fellow republicans, look, we didn't win the white house, we didn't get control of the senate as we had hoped, let's just cut the deal that we can cut right now and that's a deal that as he mentioned would raise taxes on the wealthy, and no one else. congresswoman what do you think of that idea? >> well, i tell you, i think that what you're seeing is how republicans put a lot of ideas out there, and then we hashed through those ideas. you know, my approach -- no, you

know what we have to do is -- >> can we get an answer on that one first. yes or no? >> well, he has his idea. i don't want to raise taxes on anybody because so many of those that are paying -- and this is why, so many of those that are earning and filing at $250,000 are family-owned businesses. and this is how they file for their businesses. and i am hearing from so many of those individuals and some of them are mom and pop stores, some of them are entrepreneurial companies, that are trying to get their sea legs underneath them and they're saying what are you all doing, talking about a tax rate increase? and what i want to do is put the focus on cutting spending. that is item number one and it is something we as republicans have been trying to do since 2005 when we passed the deficit

reduction act. >> let me jump to that, because part of the intriguing thing here is the fact that congressman cole, he is doing something that the president said, that post election news conference and that is, you know, extend the tax cut for everyone, but the wealthy, and then, you know, after you get that done, and i don't know if you would be going along with that, but nevertheless, you know, go ahead, talk about this long-term deal that would involve possible cuts as i think you're getting at, you know, cuts to programs like medicare. is that something we could see taking shape here? >> you're talking about getting rid of redundancies. great example, 342 economic development programs that are in the federal government system. let's start cleaning up these redundancies. let's do some of these across the board cuts in discretionary spending. let's make certain that medicare and social security, which are trust funds, not entitlements, they're trust funds, that they meet their obligation to our seniors and near seniors. let's look at how they become

long-term sustainable, because right now the liabilities that we have on the books for the federal government, this is something we have got to deal with. and, brooke, you know what, the president is doing is saying, look, let's address a tenth of the problem. let's talk about raising taxes, tax rights, so we can pay for eight or nine days more of federal government spending every year. what i'm saying is let's -- let's address the whole enchilada. >> i understand and i think -- >> we have to do some spending cuts. >> i understand. i think a lot of your colleagues would agree and we're starting to hear some of your other colleagues may be flirting with something that it sounds like you would not go along with. but nevertheless, let me back up here, your side is criticizing the president for going straight to the public here when you talk about the president's strategy, right, he's going to the public, meeting with middle class americans, meeting with ceos to make his case on this. you have speaker boehner. you have senate leader for your party mitch mcconnell.

they're both saying, hang on, he needs to get in there and negotiate. but i want to point this out, congresswoman, let me point this out, this is from erskine bowles today. we talked about ad nauseam of the simpson/bowles debt committee and this is erskine bowles about to meet with the president yesterday, and he later said that the president expressed flexibility on tax rates. let me quote him, bowles is quoted as saying, i didn't sense it, i heard it. he went on to say, quote, the white house really believes at its core that new tax revenue ought to come from the wealthy. but, according to "usa today," he went on to say the president is open to republican alternatives. open to republican alternatives. you're there on the hill. are you hearing anything like that? >> we have not been invited to present those alternatives and we do have them. cleaning up the tax code is a great place to begin. and looking at what you're going to do with closing some of these

loopholes. we all know that if you want to generate more revenue, you need to flatten the rates, clean up that tax code, broaden the base. that is how you do it. and at the same time, you've got to get in there and cut some of the spending. we can't afford to continue to borrow nearly 50 cents of every dollar that we spend. we can't afford to run 1.2 to $1.5 trillion deficits every year. and we can't afford to bring obama care on to the books, because we know it has already doubled in its predicted cost. it was -- >> congresswoman, forgive me for cutting you off. but final question, yes or no, you think you'll be on the hill come christmas talking about this? >> oh, no, no. i think what you're going to do is see us find a way to move the bulk of this, to get past the fiscal cliff to address that, and then to have a good discussion. i'm pleased to welcome the president, the democrats to the discussion. this is something some of us have been trying to get done for

many years. and i'm delighted to see that they're finally putting their attention on it. we have to get the fiscal house in order. >> thank you so much. live for me on the hill today, appreciate it. today, business titans. tomorrow, the business guy trying to take his job. that's right, president obama and mitt romney will be meeting at the white house for lunch in the private dining room, no, no. no cameras, no reporters. just the president and his challenger, sitting down to talk, after a long and bitter battle. it is a meeting president obama anticipated in his acceptance speech back on election night. >> we may have battled fiercely, but it is only because we love this country deeply. and we care so strongly about its future. in the weeks ahead, i also look forward to sitting down with governor romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward. >> jim acosta covered that long and often brutal campaign.

jim, you look nice. good to see you. >> every time i try to get out, they pull me back in. >> we needed you. we needed you. look, this meeting, this is not the kind of thing where you're the president of the united states, you pick up the phone and say, hey, mitt, let's meet. there are negotiations, there are conditions. how did the meeting happen? >> that's a very good question, brooke. i have to tell you that both the white house and aides to mitt romney have been fairly tight lipped about this. we saw jay carney the white house press secretary talk about this at the briefing. and the invitation was extended and it was accepted by the former gop nominee. he will be in town tomorrow. he'll be here in washington tomorrow to have lunch with the president. before he does that, he will be meeting with his old running mate, paul ryan, who is in the midst of all of these fiscal cliff negotiations. so it is a busy time in washington right now. and mitt romney will be coming right into the thick of all of this. but, you know, a lot of this is happening just as it seems the romney folks and people in

romney world are trying to resuscitate mitt romney's image somewhat. you see stu stevens taking out an op-ed in the washington post just today, brooke, talking about how losing is just losing, and that it is not a mandate to throw out every idea that this candidate expressed during the course of the campaign, and it is not an excuse to show what he called disrespect for what he calls a good man. so we're seeing a lot of mitt romney, not just from the former candidate, but from people around him as well. and so it is going to be interesting to watch all of that tomorrow. >> obviously we would love to be a fly on the wall in the room. we will not be there. but during his first post election press conference, the president hinted at some possible discussion points. watch. >> that's right. >> how can we make the federal government more customer friendly, how can we make sure that we're consolidating programs that are duplicative. how can we eliminate additional

waste? he presented some ideas during the course of the campaign that i actually agree with. and so it would be interesting to talk to him about something like that. >> moving forward, jim acosta, is there a goal for mitt romney here? >> well, jay carney was asked about that at the end of the briefing, he was asked, will they be discussing a cabinet position tomorrow? and everybody sort of laughed in the briefing room and jay carney shook his head and said, no. i will tell you, though, we did get confirmed from a couple of different romney aides that the former massachusetts governor will be taking up an office in the offices of his son's private investment firm in boston. but he's not joining the firm. so he's going to have an office in those offices, but not be a part of the firm. so what does this equal? that equals to he still has a day job. and if you do look at how president obama has handled himself as president, he has sort of cultivated this team of

rivals atmosphere within this administration. he had a hard fought campaign with hillary clinton. and then he went on to make her secretary of state. does that mean he's going to name mitt romney to his cabinet? i talked to a democratic official who told me she would be shocked if that were to occur. and that this -- this should be an interesting discussion when you look at some of the things that mitt romney said in the days after the election. he had that conference call with those donors where he talked about, well, the president won because he was giving out gifts to minority groups and so forth. so there may be some fence mending going on, but there may also be a discussion of ideas. mitt romney talked about ideas during the campaign, that the president says he respects and likes. and some of that has to do with this fiscal cliff situation, brooke. mitt romney talked about loopholes and deductions that could be curtailed and that obviously is part of the discussion. so we'll see if that comes up as well. >> we'll chat tomorrow and get a follow-up on what perhaps was discussed. jim acosta, thank you. up next, susan rice, once again, comes face to face with several republicans here today.

and one senator in particular says, ambassador rice would make a better politician than a diplomat. plus, if you are in an office pool for tonight's powerball drawing, listen up. my next guest defended a very messy situation involving co-workers who won.

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all right, let's get down to what we're all really thinking and talking about today. >> random. >> yep, powerball. more than half a billion dollars on the line tonight. working folks across the country tossing in a couple of dollars into the office pool. don't want to dampen the fun here but i have to read you a couple of headlines from this past year. quote, $118 million lottery win brings office pool lawsuit. this is from may. this one is from march, new jersey man to pay millions in lottery lawsuit. he told his co-workers the winning ticket was one he bought for himself with his own money. well, guess what, the jury disagreed. how about this one from february? lost love, man has no right to ex-girlfriend's lottery winnings

judge rules. time to bring in defense attorney joey jackson who, you know, you represented a case like this here. >> i did. >> this is what everybody was talking about, driving in from the airport today, the guy who was driving me in, like all about what would you do if you win, yada, yada, yada. >> big money. half a billion dollars! what can we do with that, brooke? >> i told him i would take my family around the world on a trip. nevertheless -- >> a few times. >> a few times. you represented this guy who said sorry, office co-workers, i bought my winning ticket, therefore money's mine. >> pretty amazing. what happened was he was the designated representative to get the ticket. they won second place. when they won, he said, wait a second, but i fwhaut wbought th winning ticket with my money, you had nothing to do with it. by the time they came to me, they talked about the case it was two weeks and spent half the money. >> he spent half the money. >> half the money in two weeks. immediately what i did was i moved to -- it is called the preliminary injunction. you freeze the account. and thank goodness the judge agreed that the account should

be frozen pending the outcome of the case, because guess what, there would have been no money left over. got to bended where they didn't go after him, not for what was spent, but what was left in the account. the three workers i represented, they split it among themselves. >> whoever is coordinating the office pool, stephanie, i'm looking at you, what is the protocol? >> you got to remember the ds. the first thing is you have to define the office pool. that is you want to see who is going to be involved, right? who are the amount of people that are going to be involved and then you see what that group is, that's your definite group. now, the next d, designate a person of that group to go out and be the purchasing agent to get the ticket. all right? ready? they come back, the third d is that you display, that is you copy all the tickets they purchased, right? and then you distribute them, but before you distribute them, brooke, everybody has to sign. this way we're all protected,

everyone in the group is known, and we're all good. it's a contract, legally. >> joey jackson, thank you. good luck tonight. >> pleasure. i'm winning. i'm winning. >> joey, thank you. coming up next here, a scheme targeting life savings of more than a million bank customers. you'll hear how the suspects pulled the whole thing off. plus, shocking allegations in the factory fire that killed more than 100 workers. a factory that makes clothes for american brands. now, word of arrests.

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want to talk about egypt here. we have new images from cairo's tahrir square. riot police firing tear gas on protesters. more clashes today over a move by egyptian president mohamed morsi to extend his powers. the protesters insist they will stay in the square until morsi gives back some of the sweeping powers he seized all of six days ago. an update on that fire at this bangladesh clothing factory that killed 111 workers. today, three supervisors at the

factory have been arrested. that's the news here. they're accused of locking the main gate at the facility making it impossible for people to run out and away from the fire. a ponzi scheme has been uncovered at the kabul bank in afghanistan. hundreds of millions of dollars siphoned from the savings of regular folks. >> $935 million had been lost through loan book scheme. additional $66.2 million lost through other forms. >> the victims here are people who were convinced to put the money into a western style bank, seen as a symbol of hope for a country emerging from the ruins of war. the kabul bank is also where a lot of u.s. reconstruction money is deposited. more fireworks on capitol hill as the criticism of u.n. ambassador susan rice is heating up. a live report coming up next. plus, thieves cleaning out hotel rooms in mere minutes. we will show you the new technology making it easier for

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okay, say you're on vacation or out of town for work and you're in a hotel room, leave your jewelry, leave your laptop behind in what you assume say locked hotel room, while you head out and about. your stuff is safe inside the room, right? maybe not. hackers are now targeting hotel key card locks, and swiping pricey items like jewelry and electronics. andy greenburg broke the story. i read this first thing this morning and thought, great, i'm checking in a hotel room two hours from now. please tell me how easy it is for the hackers to get into rooms. >> it is rather shockingly easy. this all started over the summer when a hacker named cody brosius, the security researcher, presented at the hacker conference called black hat in las vegas. and he showed that with about $50 worth of hardware, he could basically build this device that he then inserts into the bottom

of a certain kind of hotel lock that is incredibly common built by oddity and essentially read the secret key that is stored in the lock's memory and open it literally in seconds with no trace at all. >> you mentioned a particular kind of lock. when i read your piece, i thought, okay, maybe this is one hotel. you write about how this is millions of hotel rooms potentially vulnerable and the locks aren't all fixed yet, right? >> that's right. these are locks built by a company called oddity. they are installed in at least 4 million hotel rooms around the world. and probably as many as 10 million, but not exactly clear. and in fact their response to this has been less than stellar. they're asking hotels to pay for the fix essentially. the only thing they're offering hotels for free as a kind of band-aid fix is a little plastic plug that you can put into the port at the bottom of the lock, which can still be removed if the case is opened.

but hotels are being asked to pay for it which likely means hotels around the country are not fixing this at all. they're probably not even aware of it. when i first wrote about this, the strategy to fix this problem, they removed all information from their website. i think they don't want to -- this problem to be publicly recognized. they're trying to kind of push it under the rug, i believe. >> so now that you've been writing about it, you've been breaking the news, getting their name out there, it is an easy google search i imagine to figure out which hotel rooms have these locks. what advice do you have for people who stay in the hotel rooms who have jewelry, laptops, who would like to hold on to them? >> well, the obvious thing is you should flip that bolt on the inside of the room. or use the chain, but of course, you can't do that when you're not in the room. so at least that chain can protect you, but for your stuff, while out of the room, the harder question is how do you protect the integrity of the room when you're not there. i think that that's more difficult, probably the best strategy is to call the hotel ahead of time, see if they're

using the locks. you can recognize them, by the way, because they kind of -- they have a vertical key card system, like a toaster, and you can see the port underneath that is used to hack into them as well. you can call the hotel and talk to the management and say have you implemented this fix and if you haven't, then you should. the other strategy is you can simply just not leave things in your hotel room. the fact is that hotel rooms are never totally secure. as we all know, it is probably the biggest threat to your stuff. so the strategy really is to put it into a safe or behind the front desk or not bring it at all. >> glad you're writing about it. hopefully it is calling attention to these hotels. thank you. appreciate it. washington has 34 days to keep us all from going over the fiscal cliff. 34 days. that's not the only deadline the congress and the white house face here. a new report says the u.s. is getting close to hitting the debt ceiling. talked about this before. this is correspondent christine romans here to explain.

>> hi, brooke. it is america's credit card limit. and the government is almost maxed it out again. the bipartisan policy center says the government could hit the debt ceiling as soon as february. so just how much is it? well, the limit is $16.394 trillion. we're close. america spends about $100 billion to $125 billion every month more than it takes in. we borrow the rest and that borrowing adds to the growing pile of debt. so until the government cuts spending or raises taxes, the only option is to raise the treasury's credit limit again. if congress doesn't, treasury won't have the money to pay our bills, bills like social security checks or interest payments on our bonds. but raising the debt ceiling is a political nightmare. republicans don't want to raise taxes, and democrats don't want to trim entitlements.

anti-tax crusader grover norquist wants to use the ceiling as leverage for republicans in fiscal cliff negotiations, writinging, quote, the debt ceiling provides plenty of leverage for the gop to trade for spending cuts as done in 2011 or continuing the lower rates. republicans may have lost some of that leverage in this year's election, but if history is any guide, this will come down to the last minute. cliff meets ceiling. brooke? >> christine romans, thank you. actor ben affleck among others begging the united states to do something as more and more are dying in the congo. and today, a huge development in this escalating crisis. but will the world listen? ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of all day pain relief.

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it is a conflict thatilled more people than any genocide or natural gaster since worlder ii. after 20 years of war here, the situation is escalating and the

african democratic republic of congo and stars like ben affleck are begging the united states to listen. >> more than 5 million people killed in an unrelenting series of wars. rebel groups have been taking over city after city after city, growing the numbers as they're recruiting these young children and the government seems powerless against them. >> translator: residents want the government to help them because women have been raped and we lost so many things when the military looted our houses. that's why we're calling on the government to help us. >> jim clancy, let me bring you in. here's what i understand. a rebel group, called themselves in-23, they have been holding the city of goma hostage. they pull out today. and now they're heading to a new city. what is it that these people want? >> well, they want a variety of things. some of it is money. some of it is security.

they're with their families. these were part of a rebel group, brought in as part of a deal, and made part of the army. they had a deal struck with the government, they say that government hasn't kept its side of the bargain. m-23 is for march 23rd, 2009, when the deal was signed. and they know -- they're far in the east of a sprawling country of 75 million people, dense jungle, forests, and they know the government can't respond. the military is corrupt itself. this is not going to end well. it is great that stars like ben affleck are coming out and trying to get people interested in this story because it is a tragedy, just ripped in almost biblical terms that beset these people, not just for months or years, but as you noted, for decades. >> before we get to ben aafflec, i know the founder of save congo calling this the war the world forgot and ben affleck echoing that over the weekend. take a look.

>> you can imagine if this was happening in western europe, it would be, you know, galactic event that people would be taking -- paying a lot of attention to but it is in central east africa where it is hard to get to, i think where people feel it is somewhat removed from our life. >> jim, you've been covering this since the early '90s. to ben affleck's point there, why hasn't the world been paying attention? >> well, you know, to sum it up, perhaps in the way that president jimmy carter summed up the situation when we ignored the genocide in rwanda. they're poor. they're black. and they don't have any oil. that is essentially what the problem is. the world has been able to look away. you know, news broadcasts have come out of there, there is no shortage of the pictures. but it is an almost intractable problem in that you have private armies in some areas, all competing. it is really about the resources. this is ironically one of the richest countries on the planet today. it has gold. it has colton used in cell

phones. it has tin. it has copper. it has timber. it has huge agricultural resources but can't be harnessed because what isn't being stolen by soldiers, business men and wo warlords, is being stolen by government officials. they don't have roads, they don't have education, virtually no health care. >> will the u.s. get involved here? >> i don't think so. it already has the largest u.n. peacekeeping operation anywhere in the world today. and it is simply not being effective. rightly so. they didn't get involved in a fire fight with this rebel group if we want to call them that. they're disaffected soldiers, whatever we want to call them. but it is not going to solve the problem. this is going to go on. we have seen one thing after another like this. i think the u.s. senses that. it wants the u.n. in there. wants to try to do something constructive. but u.s. is going to put its own forces on the ground inside the democratic republic of congo. >> okay. jim clancy, thank you so much. coming up next, ambassador susan

rice comes face to face with some pretty high ranking republicans. senators on the hill today. and, again, more questions than answers. a live report next. by not breaking down. consider the silverado 1500 -- still the most dependable, longest-lasting full-size pickups on the road. and now we've also been recognized for lowest total cost of ownership -- based on important things, like depreciation, fuel, and maintenance costs. and now trade up to get a 2012 chevy silverado all-star edition with a total value of $9,000. from outstanding value to standing the test of time, chevy runs deep. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed

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i'm brooke baldwin live in new york today. developing right now, round two for ambassador susan rice. she's meeting with the second group of her critics on capitol hill. and so far it's pretty much a replay of yesterday. the meeting that ambassador rice requested with the senators did not go as well, apparently bringing her no closer to gaining their support if rice is nominated for the post of secretary of state. >> i continue to be troubled by the fact that the u.n. ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious

presidential election campaign. >> i would just ask the president to step back for a moment and realize that all of us here hold the secretary of state to a very different standard than most cabinet members. >> you know the story, ambassador rice has been under really intense scrutiny for publicly repeating cia talking points that the attack that killed four americans in benghazi, back on september 11th, have been connected to protests against an anti-muslim video. diplomatic e-mails showed within a matter of hour of that attack the assault was linked to terrorists. i with aant to bring in colin l. welcome. we saw senator collins speak on the hill, she was one of several, senator coburn met with her today as well. she actually went back to the bombing in africa and the then assistant secretary of state for african affairs, you know, prior

job. take a listen. >> i'm also very troubled by the fact that we seem not to have learned from the 1998 bombings of two of our embassies in africa, at the time when ambassador rice was the assistant secretary for african affairs. >> senator talking about the attacks on both tanzania and kenya, killed 224 people, injured another 4500. and, senator went on to say both cases ambassador begged for additional security. fair criticism? >> that she did beg for additional security? >> that the ambassadors did. she said it echoes -- benghazi echoes what we saw. >> i didn't hear the details of what she said about that case, but i mean there had been some frustration expressed by the former u.s. ambassador to sudan,

timothy carney, about kind of susan rice's very confrontational role with the sudanese government and how that played a role along with many others in convincing the u.s. not to engage in deeper intelligence sharing with the sudanese. i'm not sure how that directly links to the east embassy bombings and i didn't hear particularly what she said. >> just connections susan collins was making. i want to move on and just talk about the president. we haven't seen president obama say, obviously, outright, she is my top pick. but we saw her really sort of -- saw him vehemently defending her recently. let me replay that. president obama. >> for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. >> tell me about their background. they go back to his 2008 election? >> they go back even further.

she was an adviser to him when he was a senator from illinois. and it goes back, tony lake was his -- the former national security adviser, democrat, in the clinton administration, and he sort of introduced those two. so she has been probably along with tom donilon, the people really worked with first when he took an interest in these issues. >> she has some sharp elbows. you write about this in your piece, just this month, which apparently one of her favorite words is a word i cannot say right now on television. that may be a great thing in politics, but in diplomacy, how would that play? >> i don't know. if you're, you know, the russian ambassador to the u.n., a very tough guy, and he's known for being pushy and bullying, i think when she gets into fights with him, and if, you know, cross words are exchanged, i don't think that's going to be the sort of thing that will hurt her politically. in washington, certainly not with senator mccain who has lots of criticism of the russian

government, she is, i think, known as someone who uses very frank language that you can't use on tv. i think it is -- >> is that a bad thing, frank language? >> you know, i can't find any specific examples where her use of language has resulted in a negative or a positive outcome. so it is part of her style. it is part of her personality. she's at the same time quite personable and charming and comfortable in the sort of, you know, sort of, you know, among the diplomatic crowds, so i think it is -- she's the american ambassador. everyone's got to deal with her, got to deal with her on her terms. i don't know that impedes her ability to get work done. >> we shall see what will happen. colin lynch, nice to see you. thank you. and from meeting with the president to changing diapers, how does yahoo's new ceo do it all? and what does the late football coach vince lombardi have to do

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families looking into adopting a child have myriad issues to deal with, and for some, that includes race. some questions if adoption across racial lines are really in the best interests of the child. if the child will be able to understand his or her true cultural identity. jason carol has more. >> some protesters -- >> reporter: frank summerville is an anker er anchor in oakla california. he's used to hearing from the public. but when he posted a picture on facebook, he and his wife were overwhelmed. >> it kept going and going and going. >> i think hit a racial cord. i think it hit a father/daughter

court. >> reporter: the summervilles adopted calle, a decision that raised tough questions about themselves. >> we also thought, you know, there is a baby out there that needs a mommy and a daddy. if we all of a sudden back out because we are scared that this happens to be a black baby, what does that say about us? >> reporter: they cherish watching calle's play time with older city sydney, but know as calle gets older, there will likely be challenges. racial adoptees can experience a lack of cultural identity. >> we dealt with it. my mom always turned everything that was an obstacle into confidence. >> reporter: facing identity issues head on helped world renowned chef marcus samuelsson. he's ethiopian, adopted by swedish parents. >> don't be naive about the questions that are going to come, like race has a place. >> reporter: brought up with a strong sense of self, samuelsson now feels at home in harlem, where he lives and has a restaurant. the summervilles say being open

about race and having black role models in calle's life will help when the challenges do come. >> there are differences. and celebrate the differences. >> reporter: for now, for this family, that is enough. jason carol, cnn, oakland, california. soledad o'brien examines provocative questions about skin color, discrimination and race in "who is black in america." the documentary premieres sunday, december 9th, at 8:00 eastern only here on cnn. any minute now, president obama expected to meet with his cabinet. they're at the white house. first meeting here since the re-election. find out what may be happening today behind closed doors.

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let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. and the candidate's speech is in pieces all over the district. the writer's desktop and the coordinator's phone

are working on a joke with local color. the secure cloud just received a revised intro from the strategist's tablet. and while i make my way into the venue, the candidate will be rehearsing off of his phone. [ candidate ] and thanks to every young face i see out there. [ woman ] his phone is one of his biggest supporters. [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center... working together has never worked so well. today, president obama is meeting with marisa mayor at the white house. she's one of several key ceos gathered there to talk about, what else, the fiscal cliff. mayer took the post when she was pregnant and some people criticized her for taking such a

short maternity leave. she talked exclusively with fortune magazine's patty sellers, her first interview since giving birth to her son. >> the baby has been easy. the baby has been way easier than everyone made it out to be. and that is -- i think i've been really lucky that way. but i had a very easy, healthy pregnancy. he's been easy and so those have been the two really terrific surprises, the kids have been easier and the job has been fun. >> mayer says she keeps it together by quote/unquote ruthlessly prioritizing her life. she relies on a moto of a famous football coach to help her. >> vince lombardi, in my life there are three things, god, family and the green bay packers in that order, right? and, you know, i think that for me, it is god, family and yahoo! in that order. >> evoking vince lombardi. you can catch the entire interview. go to cnnmoney.com.

hour two here, i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. live from new york, the news is popping in washington though today. right now, the white house announcing president obama will host mitt romney for lunch tomorrow. so the president breaking bread tomorrow with his vanquished opponent. we also have this. the president meeting, right now, with his cabinet, perhaps the final cabinet meeting for several administration stalwarts. among them, secretary of state hillary clinton, and treasury secretary tim geithner. hold the phone, though, because we he potential movement in the talks to avert the troublesome tax increase set to take effect january 1st. a top house republican is apparently, today, breaking ranks. essentially siding with the white house here, saying, protect the middle class from higher taxes come january 1st. but not the wealthy. not that top 2%. go ahead, raise them, he says. here he is, congressman tom cole

after a meeting with house republicans. >> in my view, we all agree that we're not going to raise taxes on people that make less than $250,000. we should just take them out of this discussion right now. not going to raise taxes on most people, and i think we ought to go ahead and make that abundantly clear to everybody, and take them out of the negotiation. we recognize we don't control the presidency. we don't control the senate. let's get the best deal we possibly can for the american taxpayer. part of that is making sure that people that make less than $250,000 a year don't face a tax increase. >> so, congressman cole, essentially saying to fellow republicans, we didn't win the white house, we didn't get control of the senate as we had hoped. let's cut the best deal we can right now and that is a deal that raises taxes on the wealthy, but no one else. house speaker john boehner saying he agrees with thsay ing he disagrees with that position but didn't say it was a nonstarter. jessica yellin, our chief white

house correspondent what are they saying at the white house about this house republican tom cole, his idea to colleagues that -- an idea that really echoes something the president has been proposing here. >> they're not getting overly excited because they know that this is one republican speaking, saying something they would love to hear, and that they're happy to hear. but it is not what the speaker of the house plans to do. there is no plan right now for this vote to take place on the house floor. i will point out, though, that this is exactly what president obama himself said he would like to see house republicans do. i asked him about it at the press conference, the president had last week or was it two weeks ago, he said, look, house republicans should just, well, let him say it. here you go. >> the senate has already passed a law like this. democrats in the house are ready to pass a law like this. i hope republicans in the house come on board too. we should not hold the middle class hostage while we debate

tax cuts for the wealthy. we should at least do what we agree on. and that's to keep middle class taxes low. and i'll bring everyone in to sign it right away so we can give folks some certainty before the holiday season. >> the white house point of view and which they feel is reflected in representative cole's position there is that it is very clear that they're in the going to -- neither side is going to let taxes go up on all americans. and so why not just cut a deal on letting those tax cuts be locked in for lower income americans and work out what they're going to do about the upper income americans. house republicans say, come on, you know where we stand on this, we're not going to change overnight because you won re-election, mr. president. we need to negotiate on some of the other big issues before anybody discusses those top tax rates. >> i know you say this is one republican, you know, and the white house isn't too excited. here is my big if. if house republicans were to begin to go along with this

idea, you know, tax relief for everyone, but the wealthiest 2% before january 1st, what would they want in return? what would democrats need to pony up? >> great question. what they would need in return is a promise to change, go further on entitlements than the white house already has gone. so the white house has locked in or set in their budget they will make certain changes and cuts that could rein in the deficit overtime. but the how republicans and republicans in the senate as well would specifically like to see more changes, more savings found, especially in medicare and medicaid, those two big things. and i asked jay carney, the press secretary, whether the president would be willing to find more savings in medicare and medicaid if house republicans would agree to the rate changes for upper income americans and carney did not say no. which is a meaningful thing here. >> it is always what they don't say. >> right. the president said he's flexible. so that's a big thing and also

whether the white house would give a little on social security. and the president has also said he's flexible. >> okay. jessica yellin, we shall see. we shall see. thank you so much for us at the white house. let's keep talking about this. joining us from washington is representative allyson schwartz, democrat from pennsylvania. congresswoman, nice to have you on. >> good to be with you. >> what do you make of congressman tom cole apparently coming to your side, saying to his republican colleagues, go ahead, let the taxes go up on the wealthy come the 1st of the year, but keep everyone else's the same. is this politically significant? >> i think every time a republican stands up and says we ought to be serious about, one, making sure middle class taxes don't go up that we actually keep the breaks for middle class americans, that's a top priority for the president, and for democrats, so whenever we have a republican agree on that, it helps move things forward. and he is a respected member of the conference. and so i think it does help to have that kind of conversation.

there is no question that -- >> let me just say -- go ahead, congresswoman. >> yeah, the other thing he said, the election mattered. the american voters did on election day is to re-elect the president and to elect more democrats to the senate and more democrats to the house and they said, protect medicare, they said protect our middle class tax cuts, and make sure that we do some deficit reduction. and work it out. that's what they told us to do. so -- >> at the same time, let me jump in, at the same time you have house speaker john boehner, you have the senate republican leader here mitch mcconnell accusing the president of holding up the talks or talking about the president's strategy. mcconnell criticizing president obama for taking his case straight to the public. let's listen, first mitch mcconnell. >> the election is over. he won. congratulations. we got a hard deadline here, however, and it is still -- he's still out on the campaign trail, kind of celebrating. >> going over the fiscal cliff will hurt our economy and hurt

job creation in our country. this is not good for our country. as simple as that and the president understands it. >> they're saying president needs to get in there, needs to negotiate with democrats into line if necessary. is that not happening. are you hearing congresswoman schwartz, from the president as all? >> let me say the administration is keenly interested in working with the senate and the house to get this done. the fact that the president is out and sulactually out in my district on friday morning talking to people what about is at stake for this country, for their families and the nation is something very important for him to be doing. always engaging the voters, the public is an important thing to do. and at the same time we should be and are having broad discussions about how we move forward. what we really need is we need republican leadership. just quoted them, mitch mcconnell and john boehner, to actually be sitting down and saying, look, there are places where we do agree. let's start where we agree.

let's begin to have that discussion. it would make a world of difference for either of them to actually say we're going to move ahead on revenues, protect the middle class, protect medicare and make changes. >> what about this? this is possibly, you know, the most dire prediction i have heard today, this comes from erskine bowles, in fact, we have video of him walking into the white house just yesterday. he co-chaired the president's debt commission. he is talking to both sides, talking with the president yesterday, talking today to house speaker john boehner, and i want you to listen to what erskine bowles says will happen, if the government drives over the so-called fiscal cliff. >> if we go over the cliff, you're going to have, you know, a slowdown in economic growth of at least 4%. that puts us back into recession. that means 2 million people lose their jobs. that means unemployment goes to 9%, you're going to see these businesses are all talking, look, they're not waiting to see this happen. they are already slowing their -- their hiring. i think if you go over the cliff

and don't have a deal, you really contract, you contract severely. i think you see moody's and fitch raise our debt rating. excuse me, lower our debt rating over a long period of time, that leads to higher interest rates. >> congresswoman schwartz, 20 seconds, do you agree that is what could happen? >> what i agree with is that the american people, the american businesses, families, our economy, our deficit we're experiencing, all require us to take action now before the end of the year, to protect the middle class and to protect medicare. and to strengthen this economy. we should take action before the end of the year and we should make some decisions and we should set ourselves on the path to serious deficit reduction. and we can do that. we need to just be able to work together to make that happen. >> congresswoman allyson schwartz, thank you very much. coming up next, susan rice, once again, comes face to face with several republicans, and one senator in particular said

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dramatic new video out of war torn syria. you saw that. this video reportedly shows what rebels say is a newly acquired surface to air missile hitting, wait for it again, hitting the helicopter. it was slowed down. you can see it, the massive flame, the smoke, the moment of impact and the chopper ended up just crashing into a field. meanwhile, activists say at least 90 people were killed today in the latest fighting in syria. today has been round two for u.n. ambassador susan rice facing her critics on capitol hill. and so far it is a replay of yesterday. the meeting that rice requested with the senators did not go well. apparently bringing her no closer to gaining their support,

if and when rice were to be nominated for secretary of state. >> i continue to be troubled by the fact that the u.n. ambassador decided to play what was essentially a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign. >> rice has been under intense criticism for publicly repeating cia talking points that the attack that killed four americans in benghazi, in september 11th, may have been connected to protests against that anti-muslim video. diplomatic e-mails showed within a matter of hours of this attack the assault was linked to terrorists. want to go to senior congressional correspondent dana bash, live on the hill. is susan rice in a worse position now than before the meetings? >> reporter: you know, you could argue the answer to that is yes. and i think today is significant

because yesterday she was facing three of her toughest critics. senators ayotte, graham and mccain, republicans who had from the get-go before they talked to her vowed -- or threatened to block her nomination. so that was one thing. today is different because that senator you just played, susan collins, is among the last remaining moderate republicans here. she does have a lot of information about what happened because she is the top republican on the homeland security committee, and she actually has a history of supporting susan rice. she was the one who introduced susan rice when she was at her confirmation hearing for the post she's in now as u.n. ambassador. so the fact that susan collins even has questions, i asked her point blank if she could support rice for secretary of state, and her answer was not yet. she has to have other questions answered. that's not a good sign for rice, but we should underscore a couple of things. one, she hasn't been nominated yet. and, two, she -- rice does have a lot of support from democrats who still have the majority.

the issue is whether or not she'll need, if she's nominated, 60 votes to get confirmed. >> what about this? yesterday some senators, they got some information from the now acting director of the cia, turns out it wasn't accurate. what is the story there? >> reporter: i mean, brooke, this is one of the things that really is stunning, that because part of the reason for these meetings is to try to reassure some of the administration's staunchest critics. so yesterday, accompanying susan rice was the acting director of the cia michael morell. and in that meeting, what happened is he told the senators that it was actually the fbi who took al qaeda references out of the unclassified talking points. only to call back several hours later saying, oops, i was wrong, it wasn't the fbi, it was the cia. here is what lindsey graham said about that. >> i can't help but feel incredibly disappointed that we were told something at 10:00 a.m. that couldn't withstand scrutiny for six hours.

and is totally inconsistent with what we were told the day before. we have five different explanations of who changed the talking points to take out benghazi. and four different reasons. this is becoming a joke. >> so what these meetings least this particular issue has done is added fuel to the fire and it is not like, you needed to add any more fuel to the fire, especially for senators like lindsey graham who is already really publicly outraged about a lot of issues dealing with the benghazi attack. >> this is just one more. one more. dana bash, thank you. after trashing the hit tv show "two and a half men," the actor angus jones, now back tracking from his controversial comments. that story's next. ♪ we were skipping stones and letting go ♪ [ female announcer ] nature valley granola bars,

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actor angus jones may be denouncing the tv show that is making him millions of dollars, but says he didn't mean to disrespect the people behind the show. jones who has just converted to the seventh day adventist church, called "two and a half men," filth, in an online video, telling people not to watch his own show. now the 19-year-old is saying, sorry, to the show's creators, to the cast, the crew. let me read you part of his

statement. quote, i apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues and a lack of appreciation of the extraordinary opportunity of which i have been blessed. i never intended that, end quote. and charlie sheen, whose exploits you know, plagued the same show, said this, quote, it is radically clear to me that the show is cursed. charlie sheen. folks are lining up today, in hopes of becoming the very next powerball winner. the jackpot now upped $500 million. that's up to this new record in the history of powerball. plus p. i have a cold... i took dayquil, but i still have a runny nose. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't work on runny noses. what? [ male announcer ] it doesn't have an antihistamine. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka-seltzer plus cold and cough fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast acting antihistamine to relieve your runny nose. [ sighs ] thank you! [ male announcer ] you're welcome. that's the cold truth! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus.

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wonderful opportunity for me to meet with my full cabinet for first time since the election took place. the primary purpose for my perspective is to say thank you, because everybody here, in their respective agencies, has done a remarkable job on behalf of the american people, across the board on a wide range of issues. they have always prioritized how do we make sure we have a strong middle class, how do we grow our economy, how do we put people back to work and how do we keep the american people safe and continue to extend our influence and our ideals around the world. and i could not have a better collection of people. many of whom have stayed here throughout my first term. i think we had as little turnover as any president during the course of a first term. and the reason is because everybody has done such a remarkable job. so my main purpose is to say thank you to them. but also to remind them we got a

lot of work to do. there are going to be a few specific issues we spend a lot of time on. one in particular that i should note is that the devastating impact of hurricane sandy is still being felt by families all across new york, new jersey, parts of connecticut, we are very pleased that under the leadership initially of janet napolitano and fema, but now shaun donovan heading up the task force, we're focusing not only on recovery, but now on rebuilding. and making sure those communities come back stronger than ever, people get the help they need. so that will be an important topic because it is really going to be an interagency concern. second thing that we'll be talking about obviously is what is on the minds of a lot of american families across the country, that is making sure we get this fiscal cliff dealt with, and that middle class taxes don't go up. i already spoke extensively about that today. i'll just repeat, there is no reason why taxes on middle class

families should go up. it would be bad for the economy, it would be bad for the families. the fact it would be bad for the world economy. and i think it is very important we get that resolved and i am very open to a fair and balanced approach to reduce our deficit, and provide the kind of certainty that businesses and consumers need so we can keep this recovery going. obviously we'll be spending some time talking about national security issues as well. but i just want to say thank you to this extraordinary cabinet for a job well done, and i will take this opportunity to publicly embarrass two members of the cabinet, whose birthdays are either today or tomorrow. rick shinseki, who is the department of veterans affairs, happy birthday to you. that is actually today. [ applause ] and janet napolitano's birthday is tomorrow. [ applause ]

all right, guys. thank you. want to get back to work. >> mr. president -- >> thank you so much, guys. >> can you talk about it at all? >> susan rice is extraordinary. couldn't be prouder of the job she's done. [ applause ] >> so there you have it, susan rice is extraordinary, the current ambassador. and possibly could be floated as a secretary of state. she's really come under fire. she's been meeting with senators on capitol hill. republican senators, some of her fiercest critics, and from what we heard from the likes of graham and from susan collins, and mccain, ayotte, they're all now -- they have more questions really than answers. again, the president meeting with the full members of his cabinet and many of those members perhaps will not be with him in the next couple of months. meantime, in the white house today, saw what the president was doing. what about inside the house? beginning to look a lot like christmas. holiday decorations unveiled

today. this year's blue room christmas tree features ornaments decorated by children, living on u.s. military bases all over the world. how about that? first lady michelle obama, she used the occasion today to thank military families. >> we're grateful for your sacrifice. we're grateful for your service. and that's really why we wanted to invite all of you here today, to say thank you. this is one big huge thank you. for me, to you all, thank you. we have found some wonderful ways to pay tribute to your service and sacrifice. as an important part of our holiday decorating efforts here at the white house. >> after some of the formalities, the first lady sat down with some of the children for holiday crafts and treats there at the white house. let's talk powerball here. if you're checking in on the gigantic lottery, you're in luck. here is an update. it is getting even bigger. move over, $500 million.

we're talking $550 million plus, grew by another $50 million in the last couple of hours. take a look at the long lines here. pictures out of louisiana, look at these people. back and forth, and back and forth. same pictures, really resonating across the country, mary snow, let me go to you. tell me where you are in how powerball fever, they are selling like hotcakes? >> they are, brooke. we are on ninth avenue in manhattan, we're in a bodega that is open 24 hours. there has been a steady stream of people coming in. the store owners here are saying they're seeing sales of about five times what they normally are. and in the past couple of hours we have seen people coming in, sneaking out of the office, fantasizing about being able to go back tomorrow and quit after they have won. so many people are day dreaming. we caught up with two new yorkers who say, you know, the

price of the ticket just to play was worth the investment to be able to day dream for a day. how tickets did you buy? >> i bought $20 worth, ten tickets. >> reporter: so $20, is it worth a day of day dreaming? >> yeah, why not. >> reporter: is that what you've been doing? >> we talked about it on the way here. my dad called and asked me if we were playing and giving me theories about how the numbers would work so -- >> i've been thinking about who i would help, who i would give money to, who i would donate to, so -- >> reporter: how long will you stay at work? and, brooke, a lot of people, one after another, come in here with plans on how they're going to spend that money. just to give you a snapshot of what it is like, just in new york state alone, a lottery official is saying that they're seeing nearly $2 million an hour in sales today. brooke? >> statistics, let us dream,

mary snow. let us dream. mary, thank you so much. >> absolutely. >> totally switching gears here, an unarmed black teenager shot to death in florida, an attorney says the shooter was standing his ground. but this is not at all the trayvon martin case. the victim here is 17-year-old jordan davis. and the man now charged with murdering davis is michael dunn. his lawyer says dun dunn is no george zimmerman. he was parked in his car when he got into an argument parked in another car that was blasting music over the weekend. he told police he heard threats and then he thought he saw a gun in the teens' car so he shot back, not once, eight times. killing davis. >> he sees that much of a shotgun coming up over the rim of the suv, which is up higher than his jetta, and it is all he sees are heavily tinted front windows that are up and the back

windows that are down and the car has at least four black men in it. and he doesn't know how old anybody is, he doesn't know anything, but he knows a shotgun when he sees one. >> well, police never found a gun in the teenager's car. davis' family doesn't see the justification for the shooting. >> they shot him over some music. and he was in the car. and there's no -- there's no logical reason. there is nothing logical that you can say that would make me believe that you were threatened. >> the mother grieving the loss. as you're pointing out, this is her only child. >> only child. how many of these mothers do we have to listen to having lost their children because someone shoots first and asks questions la later. i know she says his lawyer says during the interview, this is not the trayvon martin case, but i've got to tell you, when this news broke, brooke, i got at least 50 e-mails asking me to

look at this case. i got phone calls asking me to look at this case and what it is really about, yet again, is florida's stand your ground law. >> i don't know if it is fair to compare them. but there was no gun that the shooter says he felt threatened. was this enough to use deadly force according to the law? >> it very well could be. i mean, he very well could make the case for stand your ground because, again, in florida, and in other states that have the stand your ground doctrine, if you feel threatened, you are justified in using deadly force if you think you can lose your life or sort of suffer bodily harm, serious bodily harm. you look at the fact pattern, he says he was threatened, he heard threats and he thought -- he believed he saw a gun. >> but eight shots. >> eight shots. and he also left the scene. let's remember that. he also left the scene, went back to his hotel room and didn't do anything until the very next day when he saw this on television. and so, again, we're talking about a case that does, in my

view, sort of harken back to trayvon martin because you also have two 17-year-old african-american young men that were unarmed that are now dead, but it is really about this particular law, and there have been so many people that are asking for legislators to really look at that law, do we want that on the books, brooke? do we want this to continue happening? shoot first, ask questions later. >> how long do we have to wait before someone looks at the law? >> hopefully we'll see a change in the law. we shouldn't be reporting on these so often. >> okay. sunny hostin on the case, thank you. >> thanks. we just showed you what happened at president obama's cabinet meeting a couple of minutes ago. coming up next, ali velshi interviewing one of the ceos meeting with the president this afternoon. don't miss it, next. rage, often. that's one smart board. what else does it do, reverse gravity? [ laughs ] [ laughs ] [ whooshing ]

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from the cnn money newsroom in new york, i'm ali velshi. this is your money. first up, something that will affect almost none of you out there and therefore should be completely unimportant to you, the powerball lottery. i'm trying to focus your attention on the important things going out there and you're busy rushing out to buy lottery tickets. you get what the chances of

winning are, right? statistics, right now, fascinating how it is $550 million, people are rushing out because a really bad chance of winning $335 million wasn't enough to make you part with your $2, but for $550 million you'll take a flyer. i get it. now let's talk about something that will affect your future. 34 days off from the fiscal cliff. today, republicans and democrats met with business leaders to gauge and garner support for a budget deal that is likely to include tax hikes on the wealthy, and could include some sort of spending cuts, all with an aim to cutting the deficit. i couldn't tell you what happened at those meetings because i wasn't there. let's talk to somebody who was. tom wilson is the president and ceo of allstate insurance. tom, thank you for joining us. what happened in the meetings? >> well, it is good to be here, ali. i think what happened in the meetings is we get a sense that there needs to be more progress made quickly. because while everybody agrees something needs to be done, really the structure to get it done is still not formed up yet.

>> did you get some sense that they are moving towards some kind of an agreement, both sides? >> i got the -- i'm concerned as to where we're at. let me tell you the good news. the good news is everybody sees this as an opportunity to show that america knows how to act and get the fiscal house in order. everybody wants to make a deal. everybody agrees it should be $4 trillion and everybody agrees there is three buckets. bucket one, reform entitlements, bucket two -- but agrees how much goes into each bucket and there is really an absence of what do we do now in termsf our down payment hen how do we sort this out next year? and lastly, they're both waiting for the other party to lead. >> tom, there is a sense that the president was going to put pressure on big businesses, who have largely in the last electoral cycle supported republicans and mitt romney, to say why don't you put pressure

on republican lawmakers. on the other side, there are things the business community needs out of this deal. who is putting pressure on who in these meetings? >> i think the pressure is on both parties. both the dechmocrats and republicans. we met today with the senate democrats and we met with the house republicans. we also met with the white house economic team yesterday. and we said to all of them this needs to be fixed. it needs to be fixed because it is good for the economy and our businesses. and it needs to be fixed because it is good for our employees and if it is not fixed, the people that are going to get hurt the worst are the poor and the elderly. a recession has some impact on wealthy people, because their net worth goes down. the people that get permanently set back are the poor and the elderly and if we go over this cliff, it will be bad for them. >> obviously the big discussion you described them as buckets. they all come down in some way to taxes, whether they go up or go down. we know that a deal will probably raise taxes on at least some people, what is the sense from the business community as to what they want or don't want

to see with respect to the income tax situation. >> i think the fix the debt community, which is we have about 100 ceos which is widely supported across country, 300,000 people signed up to support us, is that revenues need to go up. at the same time, we need to be very clear that entitlements ned to be reformed, and we need to reduce spending. the issue today on taxes, it is all about -- it really is not the main stage as to whether it is deductions or the rate. the main stage is how much is in each of those three buckets. a rate increase or deductions, that could be worked out later. right now we need to focus on getting the amount of money in each of those buckets so we get to $4 trillion. >> tom, did you buy a powerball ticket? >> no, but i'm thinking about it, after watching the show. $550 million is a lot of money. >> goes a long way. tom good it see you. thank you very much. tom wilson, president and ceo of allstate. today's installment of what can cost you more is gasoline. there is a real proposal out

there to almost double the 18.5 cent tax on gasoline. it funds about $32 billion in repairs to roads, bridges and transport. by the way, the feds kick in another $18 billion or so every year because our transportation infrastructure is in rough shape. raising the gas tax an additional 15 cent a gallon will cover the short fall but not just the rich who drive. that is what you need to know right now. for those of you who don't win the powerball tonight, i'll be back tomorrow with the most important five minutes about business and the economy. unless, of course, i win the powerball, in which case i most certainly won't be returning to work. from the cnn money newsroom in new york, i'm ali velshi with your money daily. ♪ (announcer) when subaru owners look in the mirror, they see more than themselves.

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against kevin clash. victor blackwell reports. >> reporter: after 28 years as the voice of sesame street's elmo, kevin clash is now off the block. he resigned last week and now he's fighting a third accusation of sexual misconduct with boys who are now men. first of the three has actually recanted. ♪ on our way >> reporter: the producer of sesame street, sesame workshop, says it received an allegation this summer. in a statement to cnn, sesame workshop writes, in june we received one allegation from one accuser. based on our own internal investigation, the use of outside investigative firms and kevin's vehement denial, we found no evidence of an underaged relationship. however, clash was employed even as it investigated claims he had a sexual encounter with a 16-year-old boy. that accuser later recanted his story and claimed they had an

adult consensual relationship. last week, the second accuser, cecil singleton, says he had sex with clash when he was 15. he's now suing clash for $5 million. >> kevin, with his profession, was in a unique position to know that i would be a receptive victim. >> the fact he deals with young people. >> he works with children, yes. >> when you have an employee who is accused of sexually abusing kids and is working with kids, then you make the safest choice, when is to immediately suspend them and investigate. >> reporter: jeff herman represents singleton and an anonymous third accuser who said he had a sexual encounter with clash at the age of 16. none of the accusers ever contacted police. in 2011, clash spoke with cnn's erin burnett to promote the documentary "being elmo". >> elmo is laughter and love and just wanting to hug and kiss and be validated. that's what kids are like. >> reporter: in a statement to cnn, clash's attorney says the

federal case is filed against kevin clash are without merit. the cases and mr. clash's reputation will be defended vigorously. sesame workshop confirmed clash violated company policy regarding internet usage and clash was disciplined. >> i want to see these e-mails they confiscated or looked through. i want to see who knew what and when. >> reporter: sesame workshop has not confirmed on the record that e-mails were confiscated, but the company tells cnn we did not know about subsequent accusations until we read about them in the press. we trust the judicial process to reach the ultimate conclusions about the truth or falsity of these allegations. >> it is the easy way out for them. so i have no problem with them not jumping to any conclusions, as long as they're making a safe choice and investigating, but suspending while they're investigating. you know, so they just -- you know, their whole position now he's resigned, and it is out of their hands is just an easy way

out. >> victor blackwell now joins me here. what is sesame workshop saying about this? >> they're only speaking through statements. we're hoping to get them on camera. the central question is, if sesame workshop took the allegation in june seriously enough to start an internal investigation, and hire outside counsel, why was kevin clash still working around children, whether it was in the studio, voicing elmo, or if he was out working at personal appearances. of course, we're still hoping to get that answer and we'll continue until we get an answer to the question. brooke? >> victor blackwell, thank you. the army private accused of are leaking u.s. secrets could testify as early as this week. the man at the center of it all, wikileaks chief julian assange joins erin burnett out front tonight. erin joins me right here next. you can stay in and share something... ♪ ♪

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the u.s. army private accused of leaking all of those u.s. government secrets that ended up on the internet for all of us to see could testify as early as this week as part of his court-martial, this pretrial hearing for bradley manning. it's underway in ft. meade,

maryland. he allegedly gave hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group wikileaks. manning is expected to testify about how he was treated in the brig at quantico, virginia. erin burnett, she's here. you have quite the big interview scoop. we'll talk about that in a minute. congrats on that by the way. but let's talk about manning here. so potentially end of this week what might he and what have we heard through his attorneys about his time at quantico? >> they've been saying he was degraded held in a cell for six by eight feet for many, many more months than he should have. they're saying he was ill treated. and julian assange also says he was psychologically treated and abused. that's what they're going to say. and we'll see how much detail he gives on that. of course the other question will be, does he do a deal with

the u.s. government? get a lesser charge. >> if he pleads guilty. >> but if he gets a lesser charge and fewer years, does he give up information about wikileaks and julian assange in exchange for that? >> that's a big question. the big interview, julian assange, you're talking to him in order to avoid extradition to sweden he's been sitting since june in the ecuador embassy in london. you're talking to him tonight. has there ever been any conclusive link between assange and manning? >> this is what's fascinating. assange has come out and defended, he spoke in front of the u.n., when i say in front as you said, brooke, he's doing this from the ecuador embassy, he walks out the door, everybody, he's arrested. that's where he'll talk to us from tonight. he has defended bradley manning. he's said he's not going to get a fair trial. he's stood up for him. but he has refused to say whether he was -- bradley manning, was the source. he's never appeared on wikileaks. he said we have lots of sources. and he's obviously has said he's very afraid that he would, the united states wants to extradite him and put him in jail and not

give him a fair trial. >> assange has in the meantime written a book. what's it about? >> it's interesting. safety pin here on the cover. this book is interesting. main line when you read the introduction, julian assange, wikileaks, right where we've seen all the videos, torture, things apparently the u.s. government would never want anyone to see he sees it on the internet. he writes his book the internet is a threat to human civilization. >> what? okay. >> the internet has been -- >> but he's fine? >> it's been the complete source of his rise and of all of this. it's a pretty interesting conundrum. he wants very much to be seen as the person freeing information from governments taking over the internet, hiding all this classified data that he is the guy freeing all the information for all of us. >> i bet you have some good questions for him tonight. >> i'm really excited to talk to him tonight. i'm sure he's excited to get the heck out of the ecuador embassy. >> he is. but too bad for him that's where you're talking to him from.

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it is being called a ghost ship, the wooden boat washed up on the rocky shores of this japanese island here. inside five decomposing bodies. the men are believed to be north korean refugees from north korea have been known to head to japan in rickty boats just like this one. and move over daniel craig. take a hike channing tatum. north korea's kim jong-un was named the sexiest man alive. wait for it, by the si tier kal news site "the onion." they didn't get the joke. it ran a 55-page online photo spread with proud articles showcasing kim's